Linda Lavin is dead: “Alice” star was 87

Linda Lavin, the Tony-winning actress who served meals with a saucy side dish as waitress Alice Hyatt for nine seasons on the hit CBS sitcom AliceHe died on Sunday. She was 87.

Lavin died unexpectedly in Los Angeles from complications of recently discovered lung cancer, her spokesman said The Hollywood Reporter.

Hal Prince gave Lavin her first big break by pulling her out of the choir and giving her a speaking role on Broadway in 1962. She also worked with Neil Simon twice and received the first of her six career Tony nominations in the 1970s for the role of sexpot Elaine Last of the Red Hot Lovers and then won the role of the strong-willed Kate in 1987 Broadway bound.

A native of Maine, Lavin had repeatedly appeared as the lively Det. Janice Wentworth on ABC’s first two seasons Barney Miller when she was hired as topline in 1976 Alicecreated by Robert Getchell. The show was based on the Warner Bros. film Alice doesn’t live here anymoree (1974), written by Getchell, directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Ellen Burstyn in an Oscar-winning performance.

Courageous Alice is a recently widowed mother with a young son (Philip McKeon in the series) who struggles to make ends meet while taking a job at Mel’s Diner, a sleazy diner on the outskirts of Phoenix.

Play along Alice drew her directly into the women’s movement, she recalled in a 2012 interview. “I knew it was my job to learn about single mothers and working women,” she said. “So I went to Gloria Steinem, who I had met briefly, and she connected me with writers, columnists and journalists who were writing about working women.

“I learned that Alice represents 80 percent of all working women in this country who still struggle with the 69 cents on the dollar that men earn for the same quality of work. Suddenly I had a rhetoric, I had an obligation.”

Lavin marched in support of the Equal Rights Amendment and was invited to join the National Commission on Working Women. She often gave speeches in her Alice waitress uniform “so she could speak for me.”

The actress told Charlie Rose in 1992 that she had heard from “thousands” of women. (They said:) Thank you, thank you for showing me “me”, thank you for being honest, thank you for showing where the problems are, thank you for giving me hope, thank you for “You showed me that Alice can do it, I can do it.”

Lavin received an Emmy nomination and two Golden Globes for her work on the series, which landed in the top 10 in ratings for its fourth, fifth and sixth seasons.

After a nearly 13-year absence, Lavin made a triumphant return to the Great White Way with her portrayal of an abandoned wife and mother to Eugene (Jonathan Silverman) and Stanley (Jason Alexander). Broadway bound.

“Kate is a remarkable achievement, a Jewish mother who redefines the genre even as she gets the laughs she needs while worrying about her children’s health or an unattended pot roast,” wrote Frank Rich in his review for The New York Times. “One only wishes that Ms. Lavin, whose touching performance has the same high integrity as the writing, could stay in the role forever.”

“I am grateful to Neil Simon for the insight into his generous writing, which puts me in touch with all the women I come from, all the women within me, so that I am so fulfilled to play such a wonderful character,” says she said in her Tony acceptance speech.

Lavin was born on October 15, 1937 in Portland, Maine. Her mother, Lucille, was a coloratura soprano and radio host who sang in Paul Whiteman’s band, and her father, David, owned a furniture store.

She always wanted to be an actress and graduated from the College of William & Mary in 1959 with a degree in theater. A few months later, she moved to New York and appeared in an off-Broadway revival of George and Ira Gershwin Oh, Kay!

Lavin was in the choir out of town in Philadelphia in a troubled show called ” A family affair When “Hal Prince came in,” she recalled in a 2018 interview with Broadway world. “I had never met him before, a dynamic man… (he) pointed at me and said, ‘You’re great, see you later,’ and the next day he was introduced as our new director and I had three speaking roles. Back then you got $5 per person for each speaking role. So now I was an actor.”

She made it to Broadway with the musical comedy and after appearing in other plays including The Riot Act, Wet paint, The game is over And Hotel Passionatowas hired again by Prince in 1966. She played Sydney, the Girl Friday from a Daily Planet Columnist (Jack Cassidy), in It’s a bird… It’s a plane… It’s Superman and sang about her crush on Clark Kent in “You’ve Got Possibilities,” written by Charles Strouse and Lee Adams.

Lavin also performed Stephen Sondheim’s “The Boy From…” in The crazy show and toured with Van Johnson in On a clear day you can see forever before returning to Broadway in 1967 to star in the Carl Reiner comedy Something else.

In 1969 she shone as Patsy alongside Fred Willard in Jules Feiffer’s acclaimed black comedy Small murdersDirector: Alan Arkin. She won an Outer Critics Circle Award for her role as a woman who was accidentally shot on her wedding day but left to star in the Broadway comedy with her new husband Ron Leibman Cop outwhich lasted eight performances.

After The last of the Red Hot Lover, she went to Hollywood. In 1974, she attended Valerie Harper’s character’s wedding shower in an episode of Rhoda and appeared in the acclaimed television film Dick Van Dyke The morning after.

To AliceLavin enjoyed a great camaraderie with her co-stars Vic Tayback, Polly Holliday and Beth Howland, directing ten episodes and singing the theme song “There’s a New Girl in Town.” The series ended in March 1985, when her character received a recording contract and moved to Nashville with her boyfriend, country singer Travis Marsh (played by her second husband Kip Niven).

While AliceDuring her career she also starred in several television films including The dream of $5.20 an hourin which she played a factory worker and hosted her own Christmas special in 1980, Linda in Wonderland.

Her other appearances in television series – all of which were short-lived – included the years 1992-93 Space for twowith Patricia Heaton as her daughter; 1998s Conrad Bloom; and 2013-14 Sean saves the world; and 2017-18 9JKL.

She showed up Santa Clarita Diet And Brockmireto; had newer ratings B Positive, Elsbeth And Not a good deed; and worked on the Hulu comedy Mid-Century Modern at the time of her death.

Lavin also received Tony nominations for her performances in 1998, 2001, 2010 and 2012 Anne Frank’s diary, The story of the allergist’s wife, Collected Stories And The Lyonnaisand 2002–2003 she played Carol Burnett’s grandmother Hollywood gunsdirected by Prince, who introduced her in 2011 when she was inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame.

On the big screen, Lavin appeared in films such as The Muppets conquer Manhattan (1984), See you tomorrow morning (1989), I want to go home (1989), Wanderlust (2012), The intern (2015), How to Become a Latin Lover (2017), Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase (2019) and as an older version of I love Lucy Writer Madelyn Pugh, in Being the Ricardos.

Survivors include her third husband, drummer and artist Steve Bakunas, who was 20 years her junior. They married in 2005 and ran the Red Barn Studio Theater in Wilmington, North Carolina; He also played drums in her cabaret act and on her 2011 album of show tunes and jazz standards. Possibilities.

She was married to Leibman from 1969 to 1980 and to Niven from 1982 to 1992. Her divorce from the latter was particularly contentious; He sought $6 million in money and property from her, but a judge awarded him only $675,000 after a six-month trial.

Duane Byrge contributed to this report.